The £6million striker's first European goal for the club in a 2-1 defeat meant Celtic's 100 per cent start under Martin O'Neill came to an end, but Sutton said the outcome was actually a win-win scenario for the club.

On a hugely frustrating night for his team-mates, Paulus Roiha twice punished defensive lapses to put HJK within touching distance of a major upset which could have rocked Celtic to the core.

O'Neill insisted his side had created enough chances to merit their progress, and said he will also ask UEFA to overturn a yellow card for Stilian Petrov for diving, for what was a certain first-half penalty.

According to the manager, Slovakian referee Ladislav Gadosi told him afterwards that if TV pictures convinced him he was wrong, the caution will automatically be removed from his report.

But Sutton's message that a first defeat without any repercussions amounts to a monkey off their backs captured the mood afterwards. He said: 'We lost, but in a way our record stays intact.

'We are still in the competition and while we slipped up, we haven't lost in the League. Now it is important to go to Aberdeen on Sunday and make sure we get a result up there.

'It wasn't a good performance, and when Lubo hit the post in extra time, I did think it might be one of those nights. Perhaps we were fortunate in the end, but we'll take it.

'On our day, we could be up there with the best, so we'll take anybody in the draw. But, as we have seen here, if we are not at our best, we could have problems.'

O'Neill insisted he never lost faith despite the poor goals lost, and pointed towards the penalty rejection as pivotal.

'I just wondered what was in the referee's mind,' he said. 'I asked him if he saw it again on TV, would he rescind the card and he said he might. It is entirely up to him, of course, but I will now be asking UEFA to do that.

'As expected and as I said to you before the game, it was a very hard night for us. But obviously, I am just pleased to be in the hat for the next round,' he added.

Finnish manager Jyrki Heliskoski, celebrating his 55th birthday, said sub Moravcik made a difference. 'It is difficult to come on when you have not started in the team,' he said.

'You need to be very experienced to handle this and Moravcik was very calm. He was also fresh, while all the others were tired. Some of their players seemed dead tonight.

'Henrik Larsson was always in very tight situations, but I think our defenders learned their lessons from the first leg. We also have fast players up front, which was maybe difficult for them to cope with.